Radeon R9 290X Priced at $730 at Newegg

[Granseth]

If it's working, then it's the first time in five... nay 10... nay 20 years, ... nay total AMD history that any of their marketing move seems to show at least to a slight degree a somewhat close tendency of the beneficial effect it was conceived to result in the first place. If that is so, then my kudos goes to Mr. Read who finally jumped on the marketing bandwagon to give the cognitively underdeveloped human brain the emotional fast food it's always been longing for!

The problem for me is that I hate this kind of marketing.
But what 90% of the Anandtech graphics community are writing about is Mantel and 290x in some context. And I see a lot of posts and articles on different sites as well.
I'm looking forward too seeing how much good it will do for AMD though

 

[LegSWAT]

The problem for me is that I hate this kind of marketing.
But what 90% of the Anandtech graphics community are writing about is Mantel and 290x in some context. And I see a lot of posts and articles on different sites as well.
I'm looking forward too seeing how much good it will do for AMD though

I'm in the same boat, but judging from the success of Titan and the mostly relabeled GTX7xx series, we're the minority it seems.

 

[Pariah]

In celebration of the upcoming launches of two of the most important announcements in PC gaming this year, we’ve worked with EA to create the AMD Radeon R9 290X Battlefield 4 Limited Edition available, online for reservation starting today with select resellers and partners. There were only 8,000 of these made so make sure to add your name to the list before they’re all gone! Recommended AMD Radeon R9 290X pricing, specs and performance will be unveiled in the coming weeks. We haven’t released pricing and won’t comment on pricing seen on some e-tail outlets.

You can't be serious AMD. REALLY!? You have started taking preorders without revealing official specs and you want people to place orders without you giving them a price? And you say they will only be revealed in the coming weeks? What kind of shady BS is that?

Something is seriously wrong with whoever at AMD thought this was a good idea. How far behind are you guys on driver development or production of retail boards that you can't tell us the most basic facts that customers would want to know before committing to buying one?

 

[blackened23]

They're keeping the final price a closely guarded secret for some reason. That could either be very good or very bad. Judging from some of the recent data we've seen, i'm guessing it's probably BAD.

I want 290X to bring the pain to nvidia and force an all out GPU and price war. But if it is 700$+ i'm going to just laugh, because that would indicate AMD is still AMD. In other words, incompetent AMD management is still incompetent - they should realize they don't have the brand strength to command such premiums. Yet. Maybe that can change, but that takes time.

If they're guarding the price for GOOD reasons, if the price is lower than we all expect, I will happily eat my words. They could be doing this if they want to catch Nvidia off guard with price - but I kinda doubt it. That would be a slick move by AMD, something that I definitely do not expect.

 

[smackababy]

If they're guarding the price for GOOD reasons, if the price is lower than we all expect, I will happily eat my words. They could be doing this if they want to catch Nvidia off guard with price - but I kinda doubt it. That would be a slick move by AMD, something that I definitely do not expect.

If they are waiting for the Nvidia price drops, just to undercut them again, that would be amazing. But, I doubt that will happen.

 

[Pariah]

If they are waiting for the Nvidia price drops, just to undercut them again, that would be amazing. But, I doubt that will happen.

As the current market leader, why would Nvidia drop prices before knowing what AMD has to offer?

 

[smackababy]

As the current market leader, why would Nvidia drop prices before knowing what AMD has to offer?

Nvidia knows they will have a price drop once the new cards drop. If the 290X is the same price as the 780, it will still eat into their sales at least some. Dropping $50 or so would ensure people keep buying the 780. AMD can't come out and THEN immediately react to an NV price drop, because that just screws all consumers who purchase on release day, and they don't have that kind of fanbase to allow that.

 

[SiliconWars]

As the current market leader, why would Nvidia drop prices before knowing what AMD has to offer?

You're working on out of date news, AMD is the current market leader and will never lose that position.

 

[blackened23]

You're working on out of date news, AMD is the current market leader and will never lose that position.

Sorry, nvidia has a higher discrete GPU share than AMD currently - AMD was near parity with nvidia after the 5870 was released (dGPU share was nearly 50-50 each) but since that time, AMD has dipped to around 35% dGPU share. The numbers you're looking at are heavily skewed by APUs and iGPU, which I would hardly consider relevant because we are talking about a dGPU, the 290X. Going by your data, one would consider intel the current market leader of gaming graphics and we all obviously know that is not the case; Nvidia is the leader of dGPU currently, and AMD has some work to do to change that. They CAN change if it they have great software for the 290X launch *and* price it reasonably as they did with the 5870.

 

[smackababy]

I still think AMD got lucky with the 5870. I had 2 and loved them to death, but they haven't really had something that good since.

 

[Stuka87]

If they are waiting for the Nvidia price drops, just to undercut them again, that would be amazing. But, I doubt that will happen.

It may be something along these lines. Maybe to match, rather than undercut. That way nVidia can't do what they did with the 680, and undercut the 7970 by $50 bucks.

AMD doesnt want to release a new product, only to have nVidia say "hey look, we are cheaper and have equal performance!"

 

[Erenhardt]

They're keeping the final price a closely guarded secret for some reason. That could either be very good or very bad. Judging from some of the recent data we've seen, i'm guessing it's probably BAD.

They maybe want to put their new cards in a good light in the reviews. If Nvidia wants to cut their prices before hawaii comes, so be it, AMD will adjust the release price.
But if Nvidia will know the asking price for a 290X before its release, they can lower pricing on 780 in the last moment to look better in perf/$ in TPUs review.
AMD learnt from 7000 release that what matters is only day 1 reviews. Even if week later you lower prices, improve drivers and performance, it meets with 0 reaction and people will still rate the product by release review.

 

[SiliconWars]

Sorry, nvidia has a higher discrete GPU share than AMD currently - AMD was near parity with nvidia after the 5870 was released (dGPU share was nearly 50-50 each) but since that time, AMD has dipped to around 35% dGPU share. The numbers you're looking at are heavily skewed by APUs and iGPU, which I would hardly consider relevant because we are talking about a dGPU, the 290X. Going by your data, one would consider intel the current market leader of gaming graphics and we all obviously know that is not the case; Nvidia is the leader of dGPU currently, and AMD has some work to do to change that. They CAN change if it they have great software for the 290X launch *and* price it reasonably as they did with the 5870.

Nope, as previously proven most of Nvidia's discrete sales are around the 6800K level and below.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2345374&highlight=100
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/graphi...h_End_Mainstream_Graphics_Cards_Research.html

So if you don't count APU's, you have to discount ~2/3rd's of Nvidia's dGPU sales as well. That was a few years ago but at worst it'll still be half of Nvidia's dGPU sales still around the <$100 price and APU performance mark.

With the consoles incoming AMD is moving into a clear leadership position. They almost certainly ship more "gaming class" graphics products than Nvidia does, right now.

 

[Pariah]

Nvidia knows they will have a price drop once the new cards drop. If the 290X is the same price as the 780, it will still eat into their sales at least some. Dropping $50 or so would ensure people keep buying the 780. AMD can't come out and THEN immediately react to an NV price drop, because that just screws all consumers who purchase on release day, and they don't have that kind of fanbase to allow that.

I agree that Nvidia may have to adjust their prices. But you said that AMD could be waiting to announce their prices until after NVidia announces a round of price drops. That would make no sense. There is no reason for NVidia to change their prices until they know what they are competing against, so AMD would be waiting indefinitely.

You're working on out of date news, AMD is the current market leader and will never lose that position.

Not really:

NVIDIA Takes 62% of Discrete GPU Market Share in Q2 2013

 

[smackababy]

I agree that Nvidia may have to adjust their prices. But you said that AMD could be waiting to announce their prices until after NVidia announces a round of price drops. That would make no sense. There is no reason for NVidia to change their prices until they know what they are competing against, so AMD would be waiting indefinitely.

Well, I was merely suggesting AMD could be withholding their pricing (with the possibility of changing it) until after Nvidia announces their price cuts. If the release date of the card is known, NV would be much better off cutting prices before that, to garner more steam going against the new release. AMD, knowing this is inevitable, could posture a position to undercut what they feel NV is trying to undercut them.

They could also just be holding off on their awful pricing and hoping the hype will carry them through.

 

[Pariah]

Nope, as previously proven most of Nvidia's discrete sales are around the 6800K level and below.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2345374&highlight=100
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/graphi...h_End_Mainstream_Graphics_Cards_Research.html

So if you don't count APU's, you have to discount ~2/3rd's of Nvidia's dGPU sales as well. That was a few years ago but at worst it'll still be half of Nvidia's dGPU sales still around the <$100 price and APU performance mark.

With the consoles incoming AMD is moving into a clear leadership position. They almost certainly ship more "gaming class" graphics products than Nvidia does, right now.

Uhhh....Everyone else here is obviously talking about discrete graphics cards. Why are you talking about GPU shipments. By your logic, and the first link you posted. Intel is the DOMINANT leader in GPU shipments, and both AMD and Nvidia are meaningless also rans. Your second link is over 3 years old. What does that have to do with anything?

 

[xnorex]

So... when are we going to start a rallying call to AMD's twitter account? Because so far It looks like they're doing nothing for the US because no one is complaining. Ok maybe like 2-3 ppl tweeted at them, but that's nothing!

We need tweets at:
@amd_roy
@AMDRadeon
@AMD

c'mon ppl we can't let them get away with this! not one news outlet even mentioned this yesterday, they're all to busy focusing on Newegg's placeholder price found in the HTML.

No one??? I guess everyone would rather argue about spec hypotheticals lol.

 

[smackababy]

No one??? I guess everyone would rather argue about spec hypotheticals lol.

A: A lot of us are at work and don't have access to Twitter.
B: A lot of us don't have Twitter accounts.
C: Do you really think AMD will change how they announce this? They know the first 8,000 special editions will sell out near instantly no matter the cost.
D: I feel the need to reiterate most of us aren't 15 and have Twitter accounts.

 

[SiliconWars]

Uhhh....Everyone else here is obviously talking about discrete graphics cards. Why are you talking about GPU shipments. By your logic, and the first link you posted. Intel is the DOMINANT leader in GPU shipments, and both AMD and Nvidia are meaningless also rans. Your second link is over 3 years old. What does that have to do with anything?

So how about you go back and actually read it, then you'll figure it out.

 

[blackened23]

So how about you go back and actually read it, then you'll figure it out.

What you're basically doing is some form of cognitive dissonance to state AMD as being a market leader in GPU shipments - you linked a 2010 source stating AMD as being a leader in GPU shipments. The GPU share from 2010 is far different than now, where AMD has a ~35% discrete GPU share while nvidia has 65%. It is true with the launch of the 5870 that AMD reached near parity with Nvidia. However, since then, things have changed.

JP associates does discrete GPU shipment analysis every quarter and in the prior two years they have always shown nvidia to be the "leader" in discrete GPU shipments. If you actually do a google search for quarterly dGPU shipments (exluding APUs and iGPUs) anytime in 2012 or 2013, then you'll figure it out.

My point here is that AMD can come back to near parity with nvidia in terms of dGPU shipments, but they MUST play their cards correctly; they lost big time with the 79xx series. They cannot price the 290X in the realm of lunacy as they do not have the brand strength to do so. If, however, AMD mimics the 5870 launch (which was 399$ at release) with great software and a great price, they may be able to close the gap. Meaning I think the 290X should be 550-600$ and not a penny more.

 

[xnorex]

A: A lot of us are at work and don't have access to Twitter.
B: A lot of us don't have Twitter accounts.
C: Do you really think AMD will change how they announce this? They know the first 8,000 special editions will sell out near instantly no matter the cost.
D: I feel the need to reiterate most of us aren't 15 and have Twitter accounts.

A:
I'm not speaking to the people who are at work and don't have access to twitter. Clearly, if you are at work and are reading this forum then you also have access to twitter. So that comment doesn't really make sense.
B:
It's sooooo hard to make a twitter account.
C:
Yes, I fully believe if there was at least one news article or multiple tweets about how badly they messed up, they would be inclined to fix things quicker. You can see this in one of the tweets they received from an Australian. They got back to him letting him know that preorders would be up 2 hours later. And guess what... they were. Let me reiterate, all of this happened due to pressure from twitter.
D:
This last point is a bit insulting but I'm not even sure to who. I know that I'm no were near 15 so your not insulting me, and insinuating that Twitter is a tool mostly or solely utilized by teenagers is silly. So you must be insulting your own intelligence.

 

[smackababy]

What you're basically doing is some form of cognitive dissonance to state AMD as being a market leader in GPU shipments - you linked a 2010 source stating AMD as being a leader in GPU shipments. The GPU share from 2010 is far different than now, where AMD has a ~35% discrete GPU share while nvidia has 65%. It is true with the launch of the 5870 that AMD reached near parity with Nvidia. However, since then, things have changed.

JP associates does discrete GPU shipment analysis every quarter and in the prior two years they have always shown nvidia to be the "leader" in discrete GPU shipments. If you actually do a google search for quarterly dGPU shipments (exluding APUs and iGPUs) anytime in 2012 or 2013, then you'll figure it out.

My point here is that AMD can come back to near parity with nvidia in terms of dGPU shipments, but they MUST play their cards correctly; they lost big time with the 79xx series. They cannot price the 290X in the realm of lunacy as they do not have the brand strength to do so. If, however, AMD mimics the 5870 launch (which was 399$ at release) with great software and a great price, they may be able to close the gap. Meaning I think the 290X should be 550-600$ and not a penny more.

This guy literally just said a 290X with Mantle will have twice the performance of a Titan in BF4. He is unbelievably in the AMD fanboy section.

 

[ShintaiDK]

I'm pretty sure one of AMD's bullet points was that anyone could implement Mantle using a high-level shader language (HLSL).

No.

There has been a lot of speculation regarding AMD's new Mantle low-level API, specifically regarding if it's open or not, meaning can Nvidia & Intel add support to Mantle if they wish ? the official answer from AMD's Robert Hallock, Enthusiast Graphics Marketing Manager is a definitive NO.

Tech Fan@ic . &#8207;
@Thracks is MANTLE open source ?
Details



Robert Hallock &#8207;

@GnrlKhalid No. It is an API for the industry-standard GCN Architecture and its specific ISA, done at the request of game developers.


So not only is MANTLE AMD specific, it's also architecture specific, so it's only compatible with Graphics Core Next (GCN) based products, that's the 7000 series and up for discrete graphics, Kaveri & later for APUs

 

[SiliconWars]

What you're basically doing is some form of cognitive dissonance to state AMD as being a market leader in GPU shipments - you linked a 2010 source stating AMD as being a leader in GPU shipments. The GPU share from 2010 is far different than now, where AMD has a ~35% discrete GPU share while nvidia has 65%. It is true with the launch of the 5870 that AMD reached near parity with Nvidia. However, since then, things have changed.

Yeah ok so where did you go wrong blackened? Let's see.

AMD had 50-50 discrete share in 2010 (actually they had 62% at peak). The link I've shown shows that Nvidia had 55% discrete desktop in Q2 2010. AMD's market share lead during 2010 was mostly down to a big mobile win.

This changes nothing regarding the point. The important part is that 2/3rd's of Nvidia's discrete desktop sales were at the <$100 and below mark. AMD's were around the 50% mark.

The point here is we're comparing performance and market share. People wrongly believe that Nvidia holds more "higher end" market share because they wrongly believe that discrete GPU = higher end graphics. It's not the case. Most graphics card sales are <$100 crap, even now. The xbitlab link shows that >$200 card sales are a tiny minority.

AMD's APU's have simply replaced their <$100 discrete market. They still perform the same as Nvidia's <$100 discrete cards so if you discount APU's you must also discount Nvidia's <$100 market. Crap like the GT 640 and downwards, it's all APU-level performance.

JP associates does discrete GPU shipment analysis every quarter and in the prior two years they have always shown nvidia to be the "leader" in discrete GPU shipments.

And with AMD replacing their low end with APU's, what else was going to happen?

 

[Kenmitch]

This guy literally just said a 290X with Mantle will have twice the performance of a Titan in BF4. He is unbelievably in the AMD fanboy section.

290x + Mantle + Bf4 = Ridicule the Titan.

Ridicule = ???

Doubt its 2x

Riducule = Interesting choice of words.